April 11, 2011

Marfa Lights Hunting

Again we compare the concept of a modern living pterosaur with mysterious lively lights in Texas.

The latest nonfiction book by James Bunnell, Hunting Marfa Lights, has an interesting title when we consider recent research and data from that book, for a new explanation seems to turn the title upside down: "Marfa Lights Hunting." To appreciate the recent research, we need to know how rarely the CE mystery lights are usually recorded by Bunnell's cameras, and how the exceptions relate to the possibility of nocturnal flying predators.

Take the years 2001-2002. Bunnell's camera recordings in those two years were 2/9/2001, 1/31/2002, 3/31/2002, 10/30/2002, and 11/21/2002. That is only five recordings in those two calendar years (although there were two late in 2000 and one early in 2003). Months can pass between recordings of mystery lights in this part of southwest Texas.

In addition we need to know how varied the beginnings of recordings can be, as CE Marfa Lights first start glowing after sunset. For the five recordings in 2001 and 2002, the lights first seem to have appeared at the following hours and minutes after sunset: 0:52, 1:14, 0:30, 2:44, and 1:03.

So recorded sightings can be weeks or even months apart, and they can start at half an hour or over two hours after sunset. But how can that help us determine what causes those mysterious lights that sometimes seem to fly in bizarre ways, suggesting to some people around Marfa that the flying lights are directed by intelligence? Consider the exceptions, those sightings in which mystery lights appear two nights in a row.

The nights of July 14th and 15th, 2006, are one of the exceptions, not only in being consecutive nights but in when the lights first appeared: 38 and 37 minutes after sunset. It suggests the bioluminescent-flying-predators hypothesis has merit, for on those occasional nights when a group of predators has a very successful hunt, they would be predicted to return the next night at the same time, hoping for another successful hunt.

Of course, there may be some non-pterosaur unclassified bioluminescent predator that flies around Marfa, Texas, but what about those kinds of cryptids in other areas of North America and in other parts of the world, including Papua New Guinea? Many eyewitnesses describe large pterosaur-like flying creatures and some of those eyewitnesses also describe a glow emitted by those creatures. Strange as it may seem on the surface, the most logical explanation for all of this is that bioluminescent pterosaurs are the cause of the mysterious CE lights of Marfa, Texas.

I applaud the wonderful work of James Bunnell and his exceptional book, Hunting Marfa Lights. How little I would know about Marfa Lights without his years of work. But I still think that the best explanation for those more mysterious CE lights is "Marfa Lights hunting their prey."